When I lived in England, we always had a corkscrew, even when we didn’t have plates and other non-essential cutlery. Wine made everything better, especially dissertations, and given that mine was on the impact of new-age packaging (read screw-top / boxed) on perceptions of wine, it seemed essential that a corkscrew be at hand.

Back home in India, many moons ago, before screw-top and decent-tasting wine made their way here, the only kinds of wines available were the ones that made you wish you had never picked up the bottle and, of course, Noon Wines from Scottish Pub – a potent, and possibly (we like to brag) lethal brew that is so strong, waiters did not serve women patrons more than “three large”.

Having experienced often those terrible times (you know, like Mondays) when you need a corkscrew desperately and can’t find one, I was delighted to stumble across this video that shows you how to simply reach for a key, screwdriver, toothbrush, shoe or blowtorch instead.

If you want to impress your friends with displays of unbridled masculinity (or femininity), this is the way, because let’s be honest, this is arguably the ultimate life skill: opening a wine bottle when there’s no corkscrew at hand. That and, well, growing a beard.

I mean, who wouldn’t want to learn to open a bottle of Merlot using a blowtorch? Or for that matter, a bike hook or a towel?